


Death-Determined

by supergirrl



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-12
Updated: 2016-07-12
Packaged: 2018-07-23 12:45:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7463793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supergirrl/pseuds/supergirrl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The night before the battle, the Sisters come to Valkyrie with a strange request.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Death-Determined

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bluebeholder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebeholder/gifts).



> This is a little oneshot I came up with in the process of working on Valkyrie's chapter of Our Words. I hope you enjoy it! 
> 
> TW for discussions of suicide and past sexual assault.

When they stopped for the night, Valkyrie offered to take first watch, letting the old ones get some rest after their long day’s ride. She took her seat on the edge of the encampment, gazing at the horizon.

 

They were farther west than Valkyrie had ever travelled, past the ruins of the Green Place and within sight of the mountains where they would make their stand. Every klick they travelled brought them closer to Immortan Joe and his army. Valkyrie had never seen this man, only heard his name a handful of times, but she hated him beyond words, for what he had done to Furiosa and the ragged group of refugees that accompanied her. The sight of the four young women who had endured countless violations at his hands, the strange, feral man who had been drained of blood to fuel the warlord’s army, and the dying boy brainwashed into worshipping this false god, all with his symbol burned into their skin, filled her with a quiet, growing fury. She hadn’t fallen to her knees and howled her wordless, incandescent rage like Furiosa, but it simmered inside her, so strong that she could almost feel his toxic presence, hanging malevolently in the chill night air.

 

_I will kill you_ , she promised the specter of the man who had stolen her sister and harmed countless others, _With the Mother as my witness I will end you._

 

She heard footsteps, and looked up to see the four sisters approaching her. Even wearing Vuvalini garb, they still seemed out of place in the dead world surrounding them. They moved as one, and often spoke as though they shared a mind, anticipating each other’s words and carrying on conversations with only a few muttered phrases. Dag and Cheedo walked hand in hand, behind Toast and Capable. Valkyrie realized that this was the first time she had seen Capable without the lanky boy who trailed her footsteps, a shadow to her sun.

“Can you show us how to use this?” From beneath her voluminous cloak, Toast produced a knife and passed it to her. She examined it; it was clearly an Old World weapon, with a blade as long as her hand and, despite its age, still wickedly sharp. Valkyrie didn’t recognize it, so it must have come with them, on the War Rig.

She looked up at the four solemn faces watching her. “I don’t know how much use a knife will be in a road battle, but sure, I can show you some things.”

As much as Valkyrie appreciated their desire to contribute to the defense of the Rig, she was a little surprised they had come to her for instruction, instead of Furiosa, who was surely just as skilled.

Cheedo shook her head firmly. “Not for the battle, for…after. In case we lose.” Even with a sturdy blanket draped over her shoulders, she was shivering.

Despite herself, Valkyrie was bewildered. They had come so far, survived the Wasteland that chewed most people up and spat them out, because of their fierce desire to _live_.

“So you want me to teach you how to kill yourselves.” She kept her voice level, suddenly comprehending why they hadn’t gone to Furiosa with this request. She couldn’t imagine how Furiosa would have responded to them asking for a lesson in suicide. “You really think he would hurt you, after the lengths he’s gone to retrieve you?”

The night before, Furiosa had told her, in a flat, distant voice, what Joe had used them for. Used her for, in her early days as a captive. Wives, breeding stock, whatever word you used, he saw them as possessions, no different than one of his war machines. Property had value, and to him, the four women standing before her were valued for their ability to make healthy babies. Children were prized among the Vuvalini, but not in the way they were in the Citadel, as chattel to be produced. When Valkyrie learned of these atrocities, she spat on the ground and cursed his name, certain that the Mother would never allow such savagery to go unpunished.

Even though it was evident that he didn’t see them as people, it seemed strange to her that he would destroy what he so highly prized, and she said so.

“If he gets us back now, we won’t be spared,” Capable muttered, wrapping herself more tightly in her quilt.

Toast must have noticed the confused look on Valkyrie’s face. “Because he knows we cut off the belts, and we’ve been out here with Nux and the Fool for days. No use for damaged breeding stock.” The last few words came out bitter, and Capable reached out to squeeze her hand comfortingly.

The belts. Maddi had asked Capable about the strange lines on her hips, shared by Toast and Cheedo but not Dag, and she had explained the cruel metal contraptions Joe had fitted them with, to prevent them from seeking pleasure on their own or with each other. To ensure that any babies they carried were his.

And Valkyrie understood.

Despite all the horrors she had heard in the past two days, this new information-that he would murder these women, not for their defiance but for the slim possibility that they could be pregnant with another man’s child-made her choke with revulsion.

Cheedo added, “But he would spare Dag, as long as her sprog sticks. He knows it’s his.” She pressed herself into Dag’s side, turning her face into her sister’s shoulder, while Dag stroked her hair. Valkyrie realized that Cheedo’s trembling wasn’t caused by the frigid winds, but fear, all-consuming, paralyzing fear that she or her sisters would fall back into Joe’s filthy hands.

“Don’t trouble yourself, Cheedo. Win or lose, he will _never_ touch me or my daughter,” Dag murmured, running a pale hand along her belly as her eerie gaze lingered on the knife in Valkyrie’s hand, “Even if I have to prick myself full of holes to escape it.”

Valkyrie didn’t respond, letting them speak. They didn’t need to justify themselves to her, but she felt as though they needed to share their reasons with someone. She understood. Sometimes, under the vastness of the night sky, being alone with your thoughts was suffocating.

Toast, who had joined Capable in the warm cocoon of her quilt, spoke next. “I was taken as a child, like Furiosa. The whole time we were in the Vault, I remembered what it was like, being free, and I promised myself that I would feel freedom before I died. And now that I have…I won’t lose it again.”

“We don’t fear death,” Capable said, “Or pain. There is nothing he can do to us that he hasn’t done before. But if we die, it will be on our own terms.”

“Like Kleopatra.” Dag almost seemed to be speaking to herself. “She killed herself after being defeated. _And, death-determined, fiercer now than ever, perished. Was she to grace a haughty triumph, dethroned, paraded by the rude Liburnians? Not Kleopatra._ ”

Valkyrie wasn’t sure who Kleopatra was, but she understood the sentiment.

Cheedo’s voice resonated with a strength Valkyrie had not expected from such a slight frame. “We want to live. More than anything, we want to live. But not as things. Angharad died so we would be free, and there is no going back.”

No matter what they had said, Valkyrie would have shown them, because they had the right to live or die as they chose. And so their words only strengthened her resolve that Joe would die tomorrow, for creating a world where these women would rather perish than continue to share it with him.

“Alright,” she said firmly, glancing around to make sure Furiosa wasn’t watching. “Drive it into your heart, like this. Quick and clean.”

She demonstrated, placing the tip of the blade under her breast and feigning a stabbing motion. Valkyrie had seen the other Vuvalini do this, to end the suffering of someone fatally injured in battle, and it seemed like an easier death than most.

The sisters observed silently, and Valkyrie wished she had something more to say to them when she returned the knife to Toast. But she had no response for their quiet, profound courage; if the words existed, she did not know them. After they thanked her and left, she bent her thoughts back towards the man responsible for all of this, waiting for her across the sands.

 

As Valkyrie loaded her gun, she wondered how many bullets it would take to kill a god.

 

**Author's Note:**

> The poem Dag quotes was written by Horace about Kleopatra's defeat the Battle of Actium, in case you were wondering. I hope you all enjoyed it!


End file.
